In recent years, there has been a boom of announcements for satellite constellations comprising satellites weighing as little as 3 kilograms to address a growing market of machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) via satellite. SpaceNews.com

In an interview, Axelspace Chief Business Development Officer Yasunori Yamazaki, said the funding will enable the company of 65 people to continue building a constellation called AxelGlobe, though the company hasn’t decided on a final size for the constellation. SpaceNews.com

With a two-week extension of the stopgap spending bill funding much of the federal government enacted, the outgoing chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee that funds NASA says he’s hopeful to get a final spending bill approved before that bill expires. SpaceNews.com

China launched its Chang’e-4 moon mission Dec. 7, successfully sending the lander and rover into a lunar transfer orbit ahead of an unprecedented attempt at a landing on the far side of the moon early in the New Year. SpaceNews.com

The new launch date, announced Dec. 7 by customer Iridium Communications, was driven by the additional two weeks SpaceX ended up needing to launch Spaceflight Industries’ “SmallSat Express” dedicated rideshare mission. SpaceNews.com

While a SpaceX commercial crew test flight might not launch on a date in early January previously announced NASA, both agency and company officials are optimistic the mission will still fly later in the month. SpaceNews.com

During a Q&A session at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce summit to promote the space industry as an engine of innovation and economic growth, Griffin said he does not know when or how a new military branch will be organized. SpaceNews.com

Maxar Technologies sold one of satellite manufacturer Space Systems Loral’s facilities in Silicon Valley for $70 million, the company announced today. SpaceNews.com

A test flight in Alaska of a small launch vehicle by a stealthy startup company ended in failure in late November, the FAA has revealed. SpaceNews.com

President Trump has been insistent that a Space Force should be a completely independent military department. One way to organize the new service would be by establishing a Space Force under a larger Department of the Air and Space Force. SpaceNews.com

British satellite operator Inmarsat announced Dec. 5 it will be the first commercial customer of the next-generation H3 rocket from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan. SpaceNews.com

The failure of a Falcon 9 first stage to make its planned landing after a Dec. 5 launch shouldn’t affect plans for upcoming launches, a SpaceX executive said. SpaceNews.com

European satellite manufacturer Thales Alenia Space said Dec. 5 it signed separate contracts with Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Hanwha Systems Corp. to develop four high-resolution radar satellites for South Korea’s Agency for Defence Development. SpaceNews.com

On the company’s 20th mission of the year and second within 48 hours, SpaceX successfully launched a Dragon cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station Dec. 5, but suffered a rare failed landing of the rocket’s first stage. SpaceNews.com

The founders of Globa IP said they left after concerns its investors, supported by the Chinese government, were using the company as a means to gain access to satellite technology prohibited for export to China under U.S. law. SpaceNews.com

U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, the winner of SpaceNews' 2018 military space Government Leader of the Year award, said as the Trump administration moves forward with plans to create a new military branch for space — an effort she supports — the Air Force is keeping focused on the space mission. SpaceNews.com

At the Reagan National Defense Forum and the West Coast Aerospace Forum this weekend, analysts and former defense officials roundly criticized the Pentagon for lacking a solid plan to modernize capabilities in areas where China and Russia are advancing. SpaceNews.com

Despite serving just a single term in the White House, the late President George H.W. Bush is remembered as playing a key role in space policy as the country transitioned from the Cold War competition with the Soviet Union to a more cooperative relationship with Russia. SpaceNews.com

A Space Force without the complementary effort of diplomacy and confidence building would be a recipe for incalculable escalation of unnecessary tension between states. SpaceNews.com

Arianespace completed its final Ariane 5 launch of 2018 and penultimate overall mission for the year on Dec. 4, carrying a satellite for India and another for South Korea to geostationary transfer orbit. SpaceNews.com

The Characterising Exoplanet Satellite, CHEOPS, will target 15 October to 14 November 2019 for launch.

Based on a new theoretical model, a team of scientists explored the rich data archive of ESA's XMM-Newton and NASA's Chandra space observatories to find pulsating X-ray emission from three sources. The discovery, relying on previous gamma-ray observations of the pulsars, provides a novel tool to investigate the mysterious mechanisms of pulsar emission, which will be important to understand these fascinating objects and use them for space navigation in the future.

In order to observe billions of faint galaxies and investigate the nature of the dark Universe, ESA's pioneering Euclid mission will require state-of-the-art optics. The first optical element to be delivered, the telescope's primary mirror (M1), has arrived at the premises of Airbus Defence & Space in Toulouse.

ESA's Science Programme Committee (SPC) has confirmed the continued operations of ten scientific missions in the Agency's fleet up to 2022.

ESA's Gaia mission has made a major breakthrough in unravelling the formation history of the Milky Way. Instead of forming alone, our Galaxy merged with another large galaxy early in its life, around 10 billion years ago. The evidence is littered across the sky all around us, but it has taken Gaia and its extraordinary precision to show us what has been hiding in plain sight all along.

The ESA Director of Science solicits proposals from the scientific community in ESA Member States for a Fast (F) mission to be launched in the 2026-2028 timeframe.